


The Play's the Thing (The Stagehand's Soliloquy)

by theladyscribe



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Community: kamikazeremix, Gen, Remix, Shakespeare
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-13
Updated: 2012-10-13
Packaged: 2017-11-16 04:48:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,137
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/535670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theladyscribe/pseuds/theladyscribe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"I was a stagehand and stunt coordinator for a five-star production of <i>Hamlet</i>," Dean answers smoothly. // Five encounters with Billy Shakes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Play's the Thing (The Stagehand's Soliloquy)

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [The Play's the Thing](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/12510) by weesta. 



**I. Hamlet**

At first, Sam wants to kill his brother for getting involved in the school play. For one thing, it's embarrassing; Dean is twenty, way too old to be flirting with Sam's classmates and way too young to be flirting with Mrs. Ford. For another, it's the school play; it's not like it's _dangerous_. Dean's involvement is even worse than the absolute worst of the helicopter parents, because it's _Dean_ , and he always ignores when Sam wants space.

As time wears on, though, Sam is secretly glad for his brother's presence. Somehow, Dean manages to take the typical high school drama club to new heights, and Sam starts to feel like this play could actually be a success. The background players start taking things seriously after the water balloon incident, and that pushes the main performers to be better than they already are.

He _knows_ it's a success when opening night is so packed there's barely room to breathe. Sam skims the crowd looking for Dean, doesn't catch him, and he nearly panics before he catches the glint of a lighter in the catwalk near the spotlight. He grins, then quickly schools his face before he steps out onto the stage and into the lights.

 

**II. King Lear**

Dean's looking for a way to earn some cash while Dad's on a chupacabra hunt with Bobby Singer. He's a little bitter about being left out, but Sam has school to finish and Dad doesn't want him by himself for two weeks. Dean can't blame him; it wouldn't be the first time Child Services has come knocking.

In any case, he sees that the theater -- excuse him, the _theatre_ \-- in Beaumont is looking for stagehands for _King Lear_ , so he stops by while Sammy's at school.

The director is one of those snooty, over-the-top dramatics, but his stage manager is a pretty redhead who tries to stare right through Dean. "Have you ever worked in a theatre before?" she asks, eyebrow rising skeptically.

"I was a stagehand and stunt coordinator for a five-star production of _Hamlet_ ," he answers smoothly, omitting the part about it being a high school production.

The stage manager sighs, eyes him assessingly, and says, "There aren't a lot of stunts involved in this production, but we do need someone who can run the fly system. How much can you lift?"

 

**III. Romeo and Juliet**

For Valentine's Day, Cassie drags Dean to the Ohio University theater production of _Romeo and Juliet_. He half-heartedly protests that he doesn't need to see it again after she's made him watch the movie version _twice_ , but she quirks an eyebrow that says he'll be sleeping in his car if he doesn't go.

The production is fair, he decides, though he expected better of a state school's ability to pull off a convincing sword fight. When he tells Cassie this, she says archly, "You're one to talk."

"I am, actually," he responds, mouth getting ahead of the rest of him like it always seems to around her. "I've done sword fights; these guys were terrible at it. None of them even had proper posture for the type of sword they were using!"

"And you would be better at it?" she says. "This, I gotta see."

"Just you wait, Robinson. You'll be amazed at my skill with the sword." He waggles his eyebrows, and she rolls her eyes and laughs.

 

**IV. Othello**

Dean picks up work running lights for a Shakespeare in the Park production while he waits on a call from Dad. The Impala's out of commission, he's almost out of cash, and he has nowhere to be (and no way to get there), so the under-the-table job suits him just fine. It doesn't hurt that the leading ladies are easy on the eyes.

Opening night, he hears chatter on the headset that they've lost Desdemona. With fifteen minutes to curtain, there's not exactly time for cold feet, so all hands are called to find her. From his perch in the rigging, Dean scans the quickly dimming landscape for any sign of the girl. He catches a flash of white, and he radios down that she's been sighted and he'll take care of it.

He finds her in a nook backstage. He hasn't spent much time with the actors directly, but he's talked with her a couple times -- enough to be able to strike up a hushed conversation with ten minutes to showtime.

She tearfully explains that her boyfriend is in the audience tonight, and she thinks he's going to propose at the end of the night and she's not sure she wants to marry him and --

"Hey," Dean cuts her off. "Don't think about that right now. That's not what you're here for. You're here to give the best damn performance of Desdemona ever."

She sniffs. "You think so?"

Dean grins. "I know so. Now come on, you've got just enough time to check your makeup."

 

**V. Macbeth**

"The Scottish Play Strikes Again!" Sam has to admit, it's a pretty effective headline for a small-town newspaper, even though he's pretty sure it's going to turn out to be a publicity stunt created by the community theater's PR department. He was a little shocked when Dean presented it to him as a possible job; it's the kind of thing they usually roll their eyes at.

The Statesville Theater is about what he expected: an old church building converted into a community theater with terrible acoustics and a network of wobbly catwalks. He and Dean walk into the auditorium during a rehearsal of Macbeth's talk with the witches.

Sam turns to mutter a joke to Dean about Macbeth's over-the-top Scottish accent, but the words are dead on his lips when he sees the look on his brother's face. Dean's attention is focused on the players, and Sam could swear that his lips are moving along with the dialogue. Dean doesn't do theater -- as far as Sam knows, his brother hasn't been inside a theater since his brush with fame and fortune in high school -- so the fact that he can follow along with _Macbeth_ , is, well, weird.

When Sam asks him about it later, Dean shrugs. "I saw a movie version of it once, with Captain Koons."

"You mean _Scotland, PA_? Christopher Walken?"

"Yeah, that's the one. Good movie. The McBeth chick was hot."

It doesn't answer any of the questions Sam has about his brother's apparent knowledge of Shakespeare (it certainly doesn't explain why he knows the witches' lines from the original play), but Dean quickly changes the subject to finding dinner. Sam tries to find a way to bring it back up, but they leave the next morning; Dean spoke to the redheaded director for all of five minutes before she freely admitted the headline was all for publicity.


End file.
